# M 22
### (III) School Hygiene.
108. A health officer was first appointed to the School Hygiene Branch of the Medical Department in 1925. He is now assisted in his duties by two Chinese health officers, a part-time lady medical officer and five nurses.
109. The schools of the Colony may be divided into three groups :--
(i) Government Schools. These number twenty-one and contain 6,410 children. At many of these schools children are admitted at about ten or eleven years of age, by which time many health defects have become established.
(ii) Grant-in-aid Schools. These number 299 and contain 31,924 children. Many of them are equipped to act as boarding schools.
(iii) Private Schools. These number 929 and educate 65,800 children, and most of them are carried on in tenement flats, houses or "non-domestic" premises which were never meant to be used for school purposes. Children are taught in these schools from the earliest years of their school life, and the majority of the school-children who show physical defects come from them. Most of these schools leave much to be desired from the hygiene standpoint. There are 203 in the rural areas of the Colony. Powers exist enabling the Director of Education to refuse applications for registration and to remove from the register such schools as are not "properly and efficiently carried on".
110. The inspection of schools and school children is carried out by the School Hygiene Branch of the Medical Department. During 1938, 6,186 medical examinations were made at nineteen Government Schools.
111. Dental disease is the defect most commonly noted, and when the revenue of the Colony justifies such expenditure it is hoped to establish a School Dental Service, the complete details of which have been worked out in readiness.
112. Defective vision comes next in frequency, and more than 90 per centum of the defectives suffer from myopia. Its incidence among school children of all ages is 25 per centum and it reaches a maximum in the seventeen year old group, 33 per centum of whom suffer from the defect. Fortunately, most of these errors of refraction are corrected as they appear and during 1938, 584 re-fractions were done and 555 pairs of spectacles were provided. Trachoma is extremely rare among children attending the Government schools, but it is felt that the children of the poorer classes who attend the private schools would probably show a higher incidence of the disease, as the condition is not uncommon in these strata of the Chinese population.
113. During the year, pulmonary tuberculosis was proved or suspected in fifteen out of 1,773 new Chinese and Indian children (0.8 per centum). Both bacteriological and X-ray examinations are extensively used in diagnosis.
114. Of the 1,953 children examined during the year with special reference to their nutritional state, 15 per centum were noted as undernourished. No mention is made of the criteria employed in arriving at this opinion. Schemes were devised and should come into force in 1938 for the provision of cod liver oil for school children.
115. Postural deformities of chest and spine were found to be very common among the children entering Government schools; and it is unfortunate that little or no attention is paid to systematic physical training in the private or vernacular schools. This is in marked contrast with the excellent provision in Government institutions.
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M 22
(III) School Hygiene.
108. A health officer was first appointed to the School Hygiene Branch of the Medical Department in 1925. He is now assisted in his duties by two Chinese health officers, a part time lady medical officer and five nurses.
109. The schools of the Colony may be divided into three groups :--
Government Schools. These number twenty-one and contain 6,410 children. At many of these schools children are admitted at about ten or eleven years of age, by which time many health defects have become established.
(ii) Grant-in-aid Schools. These number 299 and contain 31,924 children.
Many of them are equipped to act as boarding schools.
1
(ii) Private Schools. These number 929 and educate 65,800 children, and most of them are carried on in tenement flats, houses or "non-domestic" premises which were never meant to be used for school purposes. Children are taught in these schools from the earliest years of their school life, and the majority of the school-children who show physical defects come from them. Most of these schools leave much to be desired from the hygiene standpoint. There are 203 in the rural areas of the Colony. Powers exist enabling the director of education to refuse applications for registration and to remove from the register such schools as are not "properly and efficiently carried on".
110. The inspection of schools and school children is carried out by the School Hygiene Branch of the Medical Department. During 1938, 6,186 medical examinations were made at nineteen Government Schools.
111. Dental disease is the defect most commonly noted, and when the revenue of the Colony justifies such expenditure it is hoped to establish a School Dental Service, the complete details of which have been worked out in readiness.
112. Defective vision comes next in frequency, and more than 90 per centum of the defectives suffer from myopia. Its incidence among school children of all ages is 25 per centum and it reaches a maximum in the seventeen year old group, 33 per centum of whom suffer from the defect. Fortunately, most of these errors of refraction are corrected as they appear and during 1938, 584 re- fractions were done and 555 pairs of spectacles were provided. Trachoma is extremely rare among children attending the Government schools, but it is felt that the children of the poorer classes who attend the private schools would probably show a higher incidence of the disease, as the condition is not uncommon in these strata of the Chinese population.
113. During the year, pulmonary tuberculosis was proved or suspected in fifteen out of 1,773 new Chinese and Indian children (0.8 per centum). Both bacteriological and X-ray examinations are extensively used in diagnosis.
114. Of the 1,953 children examined during the year with special reference to their nutritional state, 15 per centum were noted as undernourished. No mention is made of the criteria employed in arriving at this opinion. Schemes were devised and should come into force in 1938 for the provision of cod liver oil for school children.
115.
Postural deformities of chest and spine were found to be very common among the children entering Government schools; and it is unfortunate that little or no attention is paid to systematic physical training in the private or vernacular schools. This is in marked contrast with the excellent provision in Government institutions.
Page 420Page 421
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